The present invention relates to an overhead system for performing a plurality of lighting and imaging functions within a room for the comfort, enjoyment and non-drug therapy of an occupant. More specifically, the present invention relates to an overhead canopy that cooperates with imaging and lighting systems to display images on a canopy screen, provide predetermined task lighting and diffuse ambient and artificial light deep within the room.
Health conditions force many people to spend extended periods of time in hospitals or other health care facilities. This is especially true for people who have long-term illnesses or terminal conditions. Despite the many things that hospitals have and do to make their patients comfortable, an extended stay in any hospital can be very difficult and frustrating for the patient. Staying in a hospital room and staring at the same pictures or a television over a long period of time can cause a patient to become bored, depressed and even upset. As is well known in the health care industry, an upset or irritated patient can easily turn into a bad patient. Such patients can be difficult for the hospital staff to work with and treat. Additionally, the negative mental health of these patients may hinder their own recovery.
Patients may also experience severe depression and/or anxiety if they are forced to constantly stare at plain, sterile walls and ceilings. A patient could become frustrated and outwardly aggressive and/or abusive if she is constantly deprived of the ability to view sights or events that she is accustomed to seeing. For example, a patient may become depressed if she is not able to see the sun set or the wind blow through a grove of trees. Similarly, a patient who lives at the beach may begin to resent their condition, the facility he is in and its staff if he is unable to see the ocean waves crash upon a beach.
This is even true of pediatric patients. Children who are confined to hospital rooms for even a short period of time can easily become bored and depressed. In addition, a long term hospital stay can be very difficult and possibly traumatic for a child who is unable to see or communicate with one or more of his parents, siblings, other relatives, friends and pets for extended periods of time. This is especially true for children who are quarantined or otherwise isolated from visitors and the rest of the outside world. Unfortunately, an unhappy patient may not recover as quickly as a content patient.
In order to make patients feel more comfortable while they are in the hospital, some institutions permit their patients to bring personal belongings with them and position them about the room. These belongings can include pictures, posters, etc. However, the pictures and posters are typically placed in a designated area, such as a table that is positioned to the side of the bed or at a location along one of the walls within the room. Unfortunately, over time, these pictures can be displaced because of medical procedures performed in the room. This can result in the picture being positioned too far away or in an impossible location for the patient to easily and clearly see it. Additionally, a patient may become bored with looking at the same picture for days on end. Similarly, the comforting effect of a single image/picture can diminish as the patient's stay continues. Therefore, even though a patient is able to bring at least one picture of secure and known environment or of familiar and comforting faces with him to a hospital, these pictures and posters may not prevent boredom and depression. Hence, at best, they have a diminishing, if any, beneficial effect on the patient's recovery.
In an attempt to overcome these problems, some prior art systems have tried to establish an environment within a hospital or convalescent room that would aid in the recovery of the patient. These systems provide a still picture, sound and odor. The sound and odor are related to the image on the picture. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,676,633 and 5,681,259 to August each describe such a system for use in a health care facility or a home-based convalescent environment. Both patents to August disclose a method and system for promoting patient relaxation, reducing patient stress and expediting patient recovery by exposing the patient to external stimuli. The stimuli can be visual, auditory and/or olfactory. The patient is provided with the option of choosing one or more still, natural landscape scenes to which the patient is believed to have an innate positive (biophilic) affinity. This scene is scanned into a computer and then transferred to a flexible, high resolution fabric that is attached to the hospital curtain at the foot end of the patient's bed or the ceiling. Alternatively, the still scene can be transferred directly to a portion of the hospital curtain. The still scene can be positioned on the curtain so that it will be visible to the patient when the screen is partially closed. In addition to the visual image, the patient can be provided with natural sounds corresponding to the depicted scene and/or mild aromatic odors which are reminiscent of natural odors found in the pictured scene. As discussed above, the patient may be bored by looking at the same image for hours on end. Also, the noise and odors produced in the system may disturb other patients in the ward or in a neighboring room. Moreover, the still pictures provided cannot be changed automatically, nor can they be changed quickly. This prevents the patient from looking at different images which could sequentially depict different tropical settings, natural wonders, family members, rooms in a home, etc.
In addition to making the patient comfortable, the hospital room must also allow doctors and nurses to examine the patient and perform certain procedures. This is true of all aspects of the room including the lighting system. The lighting system in a hospital room can be critical. It must provide light for generally illuminating the room during normal times. The lighting system must also provide focused light when an examination or other medical procedure is being performed.
If the room has a window, both natural light and artificial light are available sources for illuminating the room. It is well known that natural light can aid in a patient's recovery by stimulating the production vitamin D and by maintaining or restoring the balance of the patient's circadian rhythm. However, when the sun is not facing the window, natural light rarely travels deep into the room in a direction away from the window and over the patient's bed. Also, depending on the size of the room, natural light may not travel deep into the room when the sun is facing the hospital room window. As a consequence, artificial light sources must be turned on during the day to brighten the deeper portions of certain hospital rooms. The need for artificial light during the day can aggravate or depress some patients.
Direct, natural lighting is normally not relied upon as the sole lighting source during patient examinations, drug applications or other medical tasks. Additionally, positioning the patient bed so that the natural light can be relied upon could cause the patient discomfort. For example, the sunlight could be too bright for the patient's eyes and/or too warm on the patient's body. As a result, diffusion shelves have been used to diffuse natural light as it enters a room. However, the prior art light diffusion systems do not diffuse the natural light deep enough into the room in a direction away from the windows to make them effective for completely illuminating the “dark corners” of a room—the comers furthest from the natural lighting sources (windows).
One known system for illuminating a room with diffused natural light is disclosed in German Patent No. 631,798. In this system, both natural light and artificial light are directed into a room. A reflective member is positioned along an opening for reflecting light entering the room through the opening off the ceiling. The light is then reflected off the ceiling and into the room. The depth of the diffusion into the room depends on the angle of inclination of the reflective member relative to the light source. Artificial light can also be directed at the ceiling and thereby reflected into the room. As with other prior art light diffusion systems, the entire ceiling should be painted with a very bright color that is capable of reflecting the light. Similarly, the ceiling should be substantially void of any appliances that will prevent light diffusion. Additionally, the ceiling is not shaped to force the light deep into the room in a direction away from the light source.
Additional prior art light diffusion systems are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,305 to Koster discloses a light guidance system positioned along a window for illuminating the interior of a room. The light guidance system includes a light deflection device that reflects daylight coming in through the window and artificial light generated by an artificial light source located within the room. The light deflection device comprises several spaced reflectors that extend parallel to each other along the height of the window. The reflectors guide the light from the natural and artificial light sources to the room ceiling and into the room for illumination. As with other prior art illuminating systems, the system of Koster relies on the flat ceiling to direct the light into the room. Effective light diffusion cannot occur by bouncing the light of a flat ceiling because the shape of the ceiling is not capable of providing the light deep into the dark comers of the room.
The unfriendly appearance of a hospital room ceiling can also be a source of problems and frustration for a patient. For many patients, staring at a blank ceiling for an extended period of time can be another source of boredom and depression that makes them anxious and irritable. This is particularly true at night when a patient is forced to stare at ceiling having a dark, empty appearance. These problems are amplified for a pediatric patient.
Typically, young children are afraid of the dark. Therefore, a child staring into a dark, empty ceiling may become scared, begin to cry and attempt to leave his bed. While trying to escape from his bed, the child may hurt himself while tearing at any restraints holding him in the bed or any medical devices connected to his body. Such a situation can be very dangerous for a child who is connected to an intravenous fluid source. Similarly, if the child begins to cry or scream, it can be very upsetting to the other patients on the floor. Additionally, this situation can be difficult for the hospital staff because calming and comforting the child causes them additional work.
The need exists for a system that can provide different, automatically changeable images to an overhead image screen for entertaining, calming and comforting a patient so that conditions that can adversely affect the healing process, including boredom and depression, do not occur. Also, the need exists for such an overhead system that includes an artificial lighting system that provides predetermined lighting schemes within the room. Further, such a system that can effectively diffuse natural and/or artificial light deep within a room is also needed.